Thanks for starting this thread. I'm training for my 1st tri in Sept. I'm 5'11" 205 and have lost 40lbs since April 2009. I lost the most weight by cutting out all things "white". I was a swimmer in school and over the summer I got back in the pool. An old swim team mate inspired me to compete in a tri. I live in LA and have signed up for tthe Nautica Malibu Sprint event.

The running is the part I'm not looking forward to. Never was a runner but once I get fitted for some proper running shoes I'll start the training. We have some great bike routes here and I ride several times a week. The hard part is squeezing in training into my busy schedule. I go to the gym before work 3-4 time a week and do cardio and strength training. Yoga once a week. And ride 2- 3 times a week. One of those rides is a 16 mile round trip to a pool where i swim 1200 - 1600 yds.

As it's been already started I just want to finish. I won't be 1st but don't want to be last.

I fit this bill! I learned how to swim almost a year ago and completed my first half marathon in November (also slow). My first sprint tri is on May 23 in Fl. I am terrified of the group swim and have been swimming in a pool. Tonight I am going to a group open water swim practice that a local tri club has open to the public . I am pretty sure I'm going to look foolish the first few times but there's no going back now. I'm so glad others are going though this with me.

Hey Jasmine1972- I found my way over to this posting...I just did my swim training today and I am exhausted. I have to say that I have NEVER slept as well as I have been since I started training for this tri. I don't think that I am going to worry about a wetsuit for the tri at the end of June. I've heard that it is a completely different experience swimming in the suit and it would help with buoyancy, but I'm not up for the expense of it. I'm still not convinced that I will be able to complete this tri, but I am definitely giving it my all...

balancingact - I think I may be doing all of my training too easy. I mean, I put in a lot of time, but being slow, I haven't yet had injuries/pains of any consequence (outside of general aches/soreness) from my running and my swimming is mostly almost like therapy as my swim warmups feel so good. I go on to do intervals later during the swim, but usually feel pretty good if I'm not too exhausted. As for biking, my big butt and flabby inner thighs still have a tough time making nice with the bike seat. Oh well- lots more work to do, and maybe, this time, a little harder.

I'll see you there too - we both will finish - no matter what it takes.

This is a problem that I am facing this summer. I'm signed up for a couple of sprint tri's, and while I love swimming at the pool (I go to local place for townies, which makes being self-conscious not such a bit deal) I'm worried about the open water swim temp that may require a wetsuit. While I love training for the tri and doing all of the different workouts (which helps with some of the impact injuries of just training for running or swimming or biking) I'm a grad student and I can't afford a wetsuit after just having bought a bike. I've heard that some places you can rent a wetsuit, but there again, I'm not sure they'll have one in my size... Here's hoping that I can just swim it in my tri-suit and not freeze! Anyway, beside that, good luck with your tri-training! My first tri is in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how that goes. My goal is to cross the finish line upright and under my own volition, I'm not fast enough to even begin to think about finishing in the top of my class, but hey! for a tri, completing it is enough, right? Anyway, have fun with training and I look forward to hearing how it goes.

This is my fourth year as a slow, fat triathlete and I'd like to point out that an open water tri swim is very different from working out in the pool.

You start in waves. Consider 50 people running into the water together to fill the space of four lanes. You're going to touch other people. Some will try to swim over you. When you're swimming behind someone, you're in their bubbles. It's like starting a marathon ... or swimming in a school of mackerel.

There are no lines on the bottom of the lake. You need to learn to look for a landmark or a bouy. I seem to always end up 5-10 yards to the right unless I really stay focused.

If you swim with the pack, you get in the current that the pack creates and it's a faster swim than you can do on your own. It's drafting..

There may be a current. My wife saved my swim in one race by pointing out that I needed to be far to the right side to compensate for the current on the way out to the first bouy. My favorite photo is of my friends and I at a try posing for a photo under a sign that said, No swimming. Dangerous current."

You don't really need a wet suit unless it's really cold. You'll warm up quickly enough. You can figure it out for yourself in the days before the race when you train in open water (or rather when you get out of the open water).

Mike- That's great advice about the swim. Learning how to look up (without drowning) every 4-10 strokes to keep on course is a good skill to practice. Another thing to keep in mind is that your legs will be wobbly as you climb out of the water up the beach, and you may have to go 100-400 yds in bare feet to get to the transition area. Thanks for the reminder about the current - now I can lower my swim time estimate just a little because of the downleg boost.

Because events later this week will keep me from getting in long workout time in the morning, I did my long run (6 mi) today after my 1 hour swim. I've been a little off schedule the last two weekends because of other things, so I didn't have time for all of the workouts I normally would have done. Needless to saw, I wasn't prime for my workouts today. The swim was slower, and I gave new definition to the term "long slow run". I seemed as tired as if I was doing a 3 mi run leg of a sprint tri, after the bike. I've got to get my eating habits back and my body back up to speed.

After my June Sprint Tri's, there is one more in July, then I'm going to build toward a local Olympic Distance Tri at the end of August.

Have fun everyone, and maximize your workouts in this wonderful spring weather, before it gets hot and miseable this summer.

Speaking of the swim...here is my concern! The only thing more terrifying that squeezing myself into a wetsuit is getting the wetsuit OFF at the transition! I've only worn a wetsuit a couple times (not a tri wetsuit, so I don't know if they are different), and I needed my husband to help me out of it. I have a vision of myself flopping around like a wet chubby seal at the transition trying to get the thing off.

It's actually a good question, and the fortunate thing is they come off a lot easier than they go on! I've practiced this fun event after a couple of lake swims, and once I just doused myself and my suit in the shower at home for a session (a really baaaaad picture in your mind, I know).

You simply take your wetsuit off inside out. Don't worry about how it looks after it comes off. You can put it back in nice rightside order after the race.

First, send your husband to the TV. Then realize that a wetsuit comes off a lot easier when wet (the fabric gives more). It helps also if you remember to tug down your the neck area before you get out of the H20 and let some more water inside. You don't have to get in the shower to practice, if you will keep in mind that water helps the process when the real thing is happening.

Stand up as if you just got out of the water. Reach back and grab the zipper pull. You may have to practice that a few times before you can find it easily. I find it helps to duck my head and swing my shoulders so the thingie flops up in my sight. Pull down the zipper as far as it will go (this may only be halfway, but try to take it as far as you can). Then reach up and undo the neck velcro (if you try to do that before you partially unzip, it will just stick back together again and you'll find yourself in an endless loop--I know because I've done it).

Grap the zipper again and pull it down all the way if you didn't already get it all the way down the first time. You can also practice doing this while running, or at least walking fast.

Then you have to unpeel like a banana. Grab one shoulder of the suit (watch your nails) and pull it straight down your arm, inside out, as far as it will go. Sometimes it will go the whole way and your arm will come out. Sometimes it will stop halfway and you will have to grab the other shoulder and do the inside out strip thing before it all comes off your arms, one at a time, to the waist.

Now comes the fun part. Keep running or walking to your stopping point--that can be at transition, or a place you just decide where you want to disrobe on the way (try to be sure it's not where the bike out is!). I can do this standing up, but some people need to sit down. Practice it both ways.

Shove the rubber mass down your hips and then peel off the legs inside out one at a time--like you are taking off pantyhose. The first one is the hardest, of course, and I just use my hands to peel it off backwards down the leg and off my foot, hopping around like a rabbit on caffiene. Then I use the free foot to step on the folded mass of the other leg and push it down.

It should end up perfectly inside out if you did it right.

Now, this will require practice, and a beer afterwards. And shut the blinds.

I 'used' to be an inshape athlete (cross country in high school and college, and swimming to keep active). Fifteen years later I am now about 50 pounds overweight and have just signed up for a Tri It Triathalon on Father's Day. I have been needing something to help inspire me to workout and be fit again. I think this is helping. Also, reading all your posts has been very inspiring and educating, as I know nothing about transitions and such. I think anyone who has the time to fit training for a triathalon in their schedule is amazing, let alone completing the event and racing it.

I did my first sprint tri two summers ago in Disneyland (a Danskin event) and can share with you that just about everyone seems to share both the fear of the swim as well as a 'can I really do this' concern. I had both negatives running through my head when it hit me. Literally. I was beaned hard in the nose during the first few minutes of the swim (sucking in way too much California Adventure lagoon water in the process) and went into full panic mode. At that moment, I seriously considered my sanity for even entering the event. Five minutes of balancing on a water noodle and listening to a swim angel shore up my confidence was all it took to get back 'in the swim of things'. Yeah, the nose hurt like crazy and yes, I was way behind all but a few other competitors but I got through the swim and made my way through the rest of the event. Wearing the finishers medal around Disneyland the remainder of the day was incredibly fun but even better was the knowledge that I pulled through when I thought I couldn't. And you will do it too!

I definitely fit into this category. I just completed my first ever tri (olympic distance - St Anthony's). It was a great experience. I wasn't last and I did a lot better than I thought I would. I have lost 135 lbs training for marathons and now a triathlon (I still have about 50 lbs to go). I have definitely finished last and it's not a big deal. Once you cross the finish line it doesn't matter. You can do it!

Hint for putting on a wetsuit - use pam (or any other type of cooking spray) on your legs and it will slide on faster.

May I suggest the book "Slow, Fat Triathlete" by Jayne Williams? I read it before my first sprint tri and it answered many of the questions I had regarding what to expect during transitions, how to prep, etc. from the perspective of a newbie. She also has a wonderful sense of humor which made the book a fun read (the description of her wandering through the woods in her wet suit like a giant slug is priceless).

Great! I'll check out the book. I have been unsure of what books to read or magazines to get because I didn't want to get into anything too technical at this stage, you know, more information than I really need just yet.

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